ECW: Fixing Something that Wasn’t Broken

ECW did something in 90’s that no one ever thought possible. They became a third giant in a two company wrestling business. Paul Heyman wrote stories that related to the general audience, not a select few. He didn’t create superheroes, he created the average joe. It worked for eight years, until he couldn’t afford it no more in 2001.

Now, under WWE financial backing, ECW is once again the third brand in a two brand company. Vince McMahon, after buying the rights to ECW in 2001, has unleashed the new breed of ECW. However, even though Paul Heyman is the supposed ECW representative, it is obvious that WWE is running the show. Not just the wrestlers who defected over to ECW, nor those who continue to “invade” the brand. New storylines and character are written with a WWE feel.

Kelly is the best example of this. Kelly is a new character that was introduced on the debut show a couple of weeks ago. She is a beautiful, young, exhibitionist. If you are unsure of what an exhibitionist is, then my point has already valid. An exhibitionist is a person who is turned on by showing what they got to everybody they can show. How many people do you know that are exhibitionists? I, personally, do not know many. Therefore, WWE has thrown in a WWE diva, tried giving her an ECW character style, and failed miserably at it.

They did accomplish one feat that seemed impossible; they brought back some ECW alumni to kick off the new breed. Old favorites like Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam, Balls Mahoney, and the Sandman. However, they have Tommy Dreamer jobbing to the Big Show; they have the Sandman just caning poor pathetic characters WWE sends out to be caned; and Balls Mahoney hasn’t been on the show since the first one. Sabu, however, is the one exception, giving him the same platform to accomplish some of the same sick stuff he is known for. It still isn’t enough to get the job done, though. But that is not WWE’s fault. When they lost most of the ECW alums to TNA a few years back, they never expected to launch ECW again. Now, they have a handful of what made ECW popular, and still trying to find that niche that will make it popular again.

The formula is not something that will be solved overnight. If they are going to regain some of the ECW glory, they will need fix a few mistakes they haven’t as of now. The first being Paul Heyman. From the beginning, Paul Heyman was brought back as the ECW Representative, the nice face of ECW past brought in to make ECW what it was, that is one camera. Behind the scenes, he is the lackey making up storylines only to be shot down by the big man above, Vinny Mac. In order to make ECW what it was, you need to make Paul Heyman the man making the stories and characters. After reading the ECW book The Rise and Fall of ECW, the quote that stuck out at me the most, sums up what the WWE needs to do: “If you could take ECW back then, when it was at its peak, and just give the creative part to Paul E., and give the financial part of it to WWE, the ECW would still be around.” – D-Von Dudley.

The second thing WWE needs to do is give ECW its own show. Now, you are going to look at me and say, “But, they already have a show.” That statement is a lie. ECW follows Smackdown! tapings on Tuesday nights, in front of [i]WWE fans[/i]. They are WWE fans, coming to a nice family WWE show, getting shoved into an ECW taping. It isn’t the same feel as a ECW show, even though it has the name.

The third thing WWE need to do is bring in the ECW fans. Now, I know it’s a stretch, after watching One Night Stand on Pay Per View, listening to the kind of chants they had for wrestlers. However, ECW fans are smart. If they know that in order for ECW to succeed, they need to cut down on the vulgarities, they will. Most of the chants they have are not vulgar and even some can be changed to have the same feel but not be vulgar. But the fans of ECW are essential to the success of the brand that made wrestling what it is today. The fans were the entire atmosphere of the show and without them, ECW is nothing.

This Tuesday may change the direction ECW is heading, possibly for the better. This Tuesday, ECW is being taped alone in front of fans who truly wanted to see an ECW show, not as an after thought to Smackdown!. If the show works, McMahon might finally take his head out of his ass and give ECW back to Paul Heyman, while paying the bills to keep the lights on. It is then, that maybe, just maybe, more people will finally see what the fuss behind ECW was, and more people will actually enjoy putting ECW on Tuesday nights; they won’t have the reason to go online and chant online that “That show sucked”.